Home Guards for Secretariat security
SHILLONG: The State Government has approved the appointment of 50 Home Guards personnel to man the State Secretariat.
Informing this here on Wednesday, official sources said, “This is for first time the state government approved the appointment of Home Guards personnel after imposing a ban on recruitment 12 years ago”.
According to official sources, the State Government has now expressed its keenness to lift the 12-year-old ‘ban’ on recruitment of Home Guards, which is presently hit by huge manpower constraints.
Earlier, Director General of Home Guards and Civil Defence department Kulbir Krishan had informed that the state government in principle agreed to lift the ban but on condition that there is availability of funds.
He further informed that the issue was also taken up with the Finance department which however asked that the matter should be kept in abeyance due to the present situation arising out of the NGT ban on coal mining in the state.
On the manpower scenario, the top official said there is a shortfall of 200 personnel in the department.
According to him, the actual sanctioned strength for the border Home Guards is around 800, but the current strength is only 588.